The Texas System of colleges and universities have created their own “Rooney Rule”

The University of Texas System of schools must now include “a candidate from an underrepresented group in the final round of interviews for all senior administrative positions” according to a release today.

The new focus is aimed at ensuring that qualified women and minorities are considered for every senior level position within the UT higher education system.

Sound familiar? The NFL has a similar rule requiring franchises to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching positions that has been dubbed “The Rooney Rule”.

“We want to ensure that qualified women and minorities have an opportunity to be considered for every senior level position. Making sure our leadership, faculty and staff reflect the changing look of Texas is not just about fairness. It’s also about effectiveness” UT Chancellor William H. McRaven noted in a statement.

“Change starts at the top. We need administrators, campus leaders and faculty whom women and minority students can look to as role models and mentors and who better understand the students they’re serving and where they’re from.”

The UT system of school is the largest institution in the nation to implement a system-wide policy like this to promote diversity among those in leadership positions on campus.

“Fairness and diversity go hand in hand with attracting the best and brightest to UT institutions. It is clear we can achieve much better results in driving equal opportunity and fairness in our hiring and promotion practice.”

It will be interesting to see what type of impact this has on future coaching searches.

For the record, UT System tells me McRaven's new "Rooney Rule" will not apply to future Texas coaching hires. The AD's office will, though.

Currently, Texas head coach Charlie Strong, and UTSA’s Frank Wilson are among the minority coaches that currently hold head coaching jobs within the UT System.

Chancellor McRaven is leading a number of really good changes for the UT System, and this one should lead to some really good opportunities for some underrepresented people out there. That’s always a good thing in my book.

Content manager - Doug took the reins in 2011 and the website has been better ever since. A former college player and small college coach, Doug now serves as assistant head coach / offensive coordinator at West Ottawa HS (MI).